Jack's Reward
by Smoochynose
Summary: Because being the last of your kind can imply there were once more of your species. Rated for refrences to mild Slash.


Summary: Because being the last of your kind can imply there were once more of your species.

**Jack's Reward**

Ianto was floating. Well, at least he thought he was. He couldn't actually be too sure as he didn't think he had a body to be floating. It was a strange thought. Having no body but then again, did the dead need bodies?

Oh. That was right. He was dead. He died in Jack's arms. He wondered if they managed to stop the 456. He felt oddly detached from everything. Was that part of being dead?

_Ianto._

A jolt of surprise spread through him. Something was calling him.

_Ianto._

His consciousness spread around him until he touched another. '_Ianto'_, it called. It was different to the first call. Another person. This one was familiar though and had a singular voice. Hearing this voice made him realize that the first had a duel voice. Both were similar though. It was only when he called out to the second voice he realized why that was.

'_Hello?'_

'_Ianto!' _it cried happily. Its voice so different from his own. He knew that this voice was female now. Just like the first.

'_Who are you?'_

'_It's me Ianto.'_

He recognized the voice now. It wasn't all that surprising she was there, when considering that she was dead too. _'Tosh?'_

'_That's right. We've been waiting for you.'_

'_Who's "we"?'_

'_She means me.'_

It took Ianto a moment to name the third voice. _'Owen?'_

'_We've been waiting all this time for you, Ianto.'_

'_Why?'_

_You needed to be together first. _It was the duel voice again. He'd forgotten about it.

'_Who are you?'_

_It does not matter._

'_She says that a lot.'_ Owen sounded really frustrated.

'_But why do we need to be together?'_

_You are a gift._

Alarm flooded through Ianto. _'What do you mean "a gift"?'_ The last gift he had heard of was the 456 requesting 10% of the children of the human race.

_He is alone and broken and in so much pain._

'_Who is?'_

'_The Brother. The Guardian. The time agent who became a conman, who became a traveler, and finally became a hero. He is so alone. Humans wither and they die and he must watch on._

'_Jack,'_ whispered both Tosh and Owen quietly.

'_But where do we come in?'_

_I want him safe. Protected from himself. You are his gift. Your job is to keep him safe._

Normally he would question why someone would do this but in the place where he felt so detached from most things there was something he wished to know more. _'Why me?'_

_You are his lover. You are the one he could never forget._

Had he had a body, Ianto was certain he would have been blushing at having the strange entity mention that so casually. He did, however, feel a tiny bit of smugness creep in. Jack was a notorious flirt but he didn't remember many. He'd been one of the few to make a lasting impression on Jack.

'_What about Tosh and Owen? Where do they come in?' _He'd noticed the pair was rather quiet. They'd probably already spoken about this with the entity. It was his turn to learn now.

_They are his children. He needs them to heal. Just like he needs you._

'_What about Gwen.'_

_Her future must follow a different path. Her children and her children's children and their children will all be very important. She must grow old. She must grow wise. Only then can she be a figure to guide them all._

Something very obvious occurred to Ianto. It was something that should have occurred to him the moment the entity mentioned he was a gift.

'_But I'm dead. So are Tosh and Owen. They don't even have bodies anymore. It's impossible to return._

He felt a wave of compassion and power from the entity.

_**I bring life.**_

Ianto gasped as he awoke. 'What the hell was that?' he thought looking around. It quickly occurred to him that he was face down on the floor in a bathroom. It only took a second more to notice the Japanese woman and familiar doctor on the floor nearby, both beginning to sit up groggily.

"H-How?"

"It was that woman," said Tosh quietly, "She saved us."

"She could have chosen to make us reappear somewhere more hygienic," muttered Ianto, wiping his hands on the clothes he had been wearing when he died.

Owen however, had found his way to the door. "Actually I would have preferred if she had dropped us off on earth personally," he replied, glancing out into the bar full of a vast variety of aliens and out of the window that showed them orbiting a planet that definitely did not come from their solar system.

"Now that's something you don't see every day," commented Ianto. Then his eyes caught something none of them had noticed before. At the bar, surrounded by empty bottles and glasses that had undoubtedly contained alcoholic drinks, was Captain Jack Harkness.

"Jack," breathed Tosh.

The man, as if he had been able to hear her, looked up. His expression morphed into surprise. The three smiled, it wasn't often you got to see Jack look like that.

Ianto felt his heart rise at the hopeful expression that then entered the captain's face, behind him the name of the bar flicked and produced an odd noise like happy laughter.

The Bad Wolf was pleased.


End file.
